A/N: Huge thanks to TheDarkMistressBellatrix, Redejeka, WhatIsUnImAgInEd and Guest for reviewing. I'm glad you guys like i so far, and I hope I don't fuck it up. :)
Happy Reading!
Ele
And it was him.
He could remember her now, a little slip of a thing, a girl who preferred to climb trees and run races than sit inside and play with dolls. There was a time when his mother would have thought that they would marry, but then Nellie moved away when she was fifteen, and he never heard from her again.
Until now.
Her hand shook slightly, and she dropped the knife.
He took that as an opportunity to stand and face her, and instead of a hardened pirate captain, he saw straight through to the Nellie Pearce he once knew. She stared up at him in bewilderment, her mouth opening and closing, but no words escaping.
"How- What happened to you?" he asked quietly, measuring her facial expressions.
At his question, her back straightened and her mouth thinned to a tight line.
Oh, she was back to being Captain, then.
"That, I'm afraid, is none of your business," she said tightly, pushing past him to get at the bottle of rum on her desk.
He grabbed her elbow and spun her to face him, only to have her slap him roughly.
"There is one rule that all of my crew know, Mr. Barker, and that rule is: you do not touch me if you wish to keep your hand," she said lowly.
He brushed her comment off.
"It is my business! You don't exactly go from being the wealthy Lady Pearce to a rugged pirate captain," he told her harshly.
"I was never the Lady Pearce! I was fifteen, for god's sakes! And what happened to me after that period when I moved away does not and will never concern you!" she spat.
"You might as well have been. You were to become the Lady Pearce; I just want to know what happened to you, Eleanor," he said, the tail end of his words coming out calmer.
"Nobody calls me Eleanor. And if you're to stay on this ship, I can't have you blowing my past to my crew, so you better shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you," she sighed, " I don't wish to speak of this anymore, . Kindly leave."
"No. Not Barker. It's Todd now, Sweeney Todd." he said darkly.
"My apologies, Mr. Todd," she said mockingly, "Now do us a both a favour and get out."
He huffed at her as she re-settled herself at her desk, taking a swig of rum straight from the bottle. He stormed away from her cabin and back down to the bunk he shared with Anthony.
He found the lad curled up in his hammock, reading a book of poetry. He looked up as Sweeney entered, and sat up straighter.
"How was your talk with the Captain, Mr. Todd?" he asked.
"Hmm? Fine, just fine, Anthony. Tell me one thing though, how came it to be, that a woman is the Captain of a Pirate ship?" Sweeney asked as he sat on a stool opposite from the boy.
"Oh. Well, you see, I'm still fairly new on this ship, so I didn't know much. But from what the other fellas say, the Captain killed the last Captain of the ship."
Sweeney's brow furrowed.
"What? A little woman like that, kill a man of twice her strength?" Sweeney asked in disbelief.
Anthony nodded.
"See, the ship she was traveling on to America with her father was ambushed by the crew and the Captain. They killed her father and the rest of the crew in front of her and took her hostage. From what I understood, the last captain, Albert, tried to bed her, and killed him by smashing a bottle over his head," Anthony told him.
Sweeney grunted, his mind whirling at a thousand thoughts a minute.
"After that, she rolled Albert's body onto the deck, and declared herself the new captain of the ship. Everyone who tried to contest her was killed or kicked off in the nearest port. The crew hasn't judged her since. She makes their lives good."
Sweeney nodded, still thinking.
So this was what happened to the sweet Nellie Pearce he once knew? Well, no wonder she was as hardened and rugged as she seemed. The poor woman had seen her father get killed in front of her, for god's sake!
Are you going soft, Todd?
No, I just pity her. I knew her once, and I pity her plight.
Of course you do. Just be careful Todd, be very careful.
I don't need you to tell me when to be careful!
The voice was silent as Sweeney climbed into his hammock, facing the wall as he tried to get some sleep.
XxX
Nellie took a long, deep drag on her cigarette, staring out at the moon as it cleared some clouds and shone brightly over the waves.
Benjamin Barker, Ben Barker, who she thought she would never get to see again, was here on her ship. She frowned slightly at the thought.
He had better heed her warning and keep his mouth shut. She couldn't have him spilling all of her past to the crew of how she used to be such a prim and proper little girl.
She snorted at the thought.
How is it that kind Ben Barker ended up floating on a raft off the coast of Devil's Island?
It couldn't possibly be that he gotten himself arrested, could it?
No, surely not.
But it would have explained why he changed so much, and why I didn't really recognize him…
Feeling a migraine coming on, Nellie flicked her cigarette into the ocean and sighed, taking a good swig of rum from the bottle she held loosely in her hand.
Just as she was about to retire, though, she spotted the dark shape of a ship approaching on the horizon.
Connolly, who was up in the nest, shouted an alarm and several members of the crew rushed up on deck, running about and hoisting sails.
Nellie helped them, and once or twice she saw Benja-Mr. Todd, helping Anthony.
She stepped up to the wheel and pulled her spyglass from her pocket, focusing on the approaching ship. Her gaze was drawn to its flag.
Ah, bugger.